author
Bishop of Hierapolis Saint Papias
An early Christian bishop remembered through fragments, he helped preserve some of the oldest surviving traditions about Jesus and the origins of the Gospels. Though his own book was lost, later writers treated his testimony as an important link to the apostolic age.
1 Audiobook
The writings of the Apostolic Fathers
by Pope Clement I, active 2nd century Hermas, Bishop of Antioch Saint Ignatius, Bishop of Hierapolis Saint Papias, Bishop of Smyrna Saint Polycarp
About the author
Papias was an early Christian bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia, in what is now Turkey, and is usually placed in the late 1st and early 2nd centuries. He is counted among the Apostolic Fathers, a group of early church writers valued for their closeness to the first generations of Christianity.
He is best known for a five-volume work usually translated as Exposition of the Sayings of the Lord. The book itself does not survive, but later authors preserved small fragments from it. In those passages, Papias presents himself as someone who cared deeply about living testimony, preferring what he could learn from people connected to the elders over secondhand reports.
Because so little of his writing remains, Papias is often discussed for the clues he offers about early Christian tradition rather than for a complete body of work. He is especially important in studies of the Gospels, since later writers quote him on the traditions surrounding figures such as Mark and Matthew. Even in fragments, his voice gives a rare glimpse into how Christians of the early 2nd century remembered the apostolic past.